The right message

It has been just about 15 months since David Paterson took over as governor for Eliot Spitzer. He came in with fairly high approval ratings as New Yorkers were willing to give the new governor, who got the job under the most difficult circumstances, a chance.

The state's first African-American governor is, by all accounts, a genuinely warm and engaging person and those qualities seemed to show through in his public persona. And, he was well liked by his former colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the state Legislature, which seemed to bode well for his ability to get good things done.

Since that auspicious start, Mr. Paterson's approval ratings have sunk to record lows. His job performance rating had plummeted to a mere 18 percent in a recent Siena College poll. A lot of that has to do with the perception that he has been a doormat for such legislative leaders as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whom many say is the de-facto most powerful man in state government.

That perception wasn't helped at all when the governor, after talking tough about the state's fiscal predicament, caved in and signed the wantonly irresponsible budget lawmakers passed in early April. That budget increased state spending by a whopping 9 percent to $132 billion, even as the state faces massive budget deficits.

Now, the governor, who says he intends to run for election for his own, full, four-year term in 2010, is trying to turn his image around.

Mr. Paterson recently fired a shot across the bow of those legislative spendthrifts by demanding the Legislature approve a cap on spending. His plan would limit any increase in state spending to the average rate of inflation over the previous three years. He's also called for reform of the current, shameless regulations that allow lawmakers and other officials to police themselves on ethical matters. The governor wants a single, independent agency to investigate and rule on ethics issues.

His sudden willingness to cross swords with state legislators is obviously a desperate gambit by a governor with very little to lose as he faces what's sure to be a tough re-election campaign next year.

That's not to say he's not right about both initiatives, however. All New Yorkers should support him in this worthy effort, regardless of his motivation. The question is whether he carries the clout to push these far-reaching initiatives through the Legislature.
After all, ethics reform has been talked about for years, but it's doubtful that lawmakers are going to give up their authority to whitewash their own transgressions.

As for spending, Gov. Paterson warned as early as December that the state was facing huge budget deficits and that spending must be reined in.

What was the Legislature's response? Lawmakers passed their own fantasy spending plan a few months later, as if they had never heard of the recession. In fact, the Legislature has regularly defied governors on the issue of spending -- even governors with much higher public approval ratings. In the last 10 years alone, the state budget has increased from $73 billion to $132 billion -- an 80-percent jump. Short of vetoing the budget, governors have been powerless to do anything about it.

Now, with a weakened governor in office, state lawmakers have done what you might expect. Mr. Paterson said that legislative leaders have refused to even introduce a bill to cap spending -- a snub by any measure.

"I think we all owe each other a certain amount of professional responsibility," Mr. Paterson told the Associated Press. "But I didn't even get a negotiation. They just said we're going to take it and put it in the Z-file."

And, he reported, at the same time lawmakers are passing other bills that increase state spending. He vows to use his veto power to stop measures that hike spending.

"We're just not going to let any spending go through around here unless we have a plan," he said.

He could even refuse to sign the 2010-2011 budget next year if it contains significant spending increases.

It's probably unlikely that Mr. Paterson will be very successful in this effort, given his near lame-duck status. Still, we wish him well and we hope he follows through on his pledge to force a showdown with the Legislature over spending. It's a debate that is long overdue in Albany.